I also agree that the wording is what the issue might be. If she'd said "enjoying the beautiful sunshine while the kids run around" it may sound better than "sunbathing", which I agree does bring up lazying around on the beach.

Or my other thought was (depending what the picture was) she was joking/exaggerating, like when the first sign of Winter comes and people say "Brr, I'm freezing, I need a ski jacket and an open fire", when it's not that chilly yet.

Actually, I would be a little mad. Even during free play, the child should be supervised, especially in heat. The job she is payed for is to watch the child, not sunbath. That can be done on her own time. If you choose to bring this up, I would tell her you saw her posting and would prefer her to be supervising and interacting with the child, not sunbathing.

My hunch is that she was supervising the children, and they don't need to be interacting with adults every minute--they can interact with each other, or just run across the lawn or stop to inspect a dandelion.

Also, it may have been "warm enough to sunbathe" by some British standards, but that was at 20 C. That's 68 Fahrenheit, which is on the low end of "room temperature." (I don't think even most British people would normally call it warm, but Britain has had a chilly spring this year.)

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My DS ia 19 mths. When tired he gets unsteady on his feet. That's when accidents happen, especially in any heat, which he's not used to. When we're outside I personally watch him like a hawk. That day was more like 25 degrees.

Im thinking I made a bit too much of this. :-)

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Actually, I would be a little mad. Even during free play, the child should be supervised, especially in heat. The job she is payed for is to watch the child, not sunbath. That can be done on her own time. If you choose to bring this up, I would tell her you saw her posting and would prefer her to be supervising and interacting with the child, not sunbathing.

My hunch is that she was supervising the children, and they don't need to be interacting with adults every minute--they can interact with each other, or just run across the lawn or stop to inspect a dandelion.

Also, it may have been "warm enough to sunbathe" by some British standards, but that was at 20 C. That's 68 Fahrenheit, which is on the low end of "room temperature." (I don't think even most British people would normally call it warm, but Britain has had a chilly spring this year.)

Yes! I screen capped my Met Office app in mid-March when it said the "feels like" temperature was -10C.

I took my kids to the pool every summer and depending on age, I was not interacting with them 100%. I always knew where they were, but usually I was with the little ones in the baby pool. I only watched two to four kids and one of my own.

I don't see the problem with what your babysitter was doing.

Watching children is not 100% "on" with the kids. Yes, we are watching your kids 100% of the time, but that does not mean that we are helping them "develop" 100% of the time.

There is breakfast, there is lunch, there is clean up, there is quiet time, there are bathroom breaks for all, (sitter and kids).

I think you need to figure out what your expectations are regarding your child and if this sitter meets those needs and if not, you should search for a new one.

I guess I just worried she wasn't paying due attention to the little ones. Maybe I just need to chill out! Lol!

I don't know about other people, but when I babysat in my home, my eyes were always everywhere or whenever we went somewhere, because I treated my daycare kids like my own and they went places with me.

Yes, there is always that millisecond where something can happen, but that can happen even with our own kids.

In my other post, I said how I took my kids to the community pool that I belonged to. I stayed with the wee ones in the baby pool area and the others would go off to where they wanted to go. It was a pool that I could almsot see from whereever I sat. If they went to the bathroom, they were to tell me before they did so.

Every so often, (quite often), I did the "kid" check and looked around and counted kids. I cannot tell you how many times a day I did this, no matter where we were.

Also, before I even took my kids to the pool, I made sure of their capabilities as for as swimming, pool safety, etc

My DS ia 19 mths. When tired he gets unsteady on his feet. That's when accidents happen, especially in any heat, which he's not used to. When we're outside I personally watch him like a hawk. That day was more like 25 degrees.

Im thinking I made a bit too much of this. :-)

I think if you want a higher level of service than a childminder, perhaps hire a nanny? I would expect a Nanny to be attentive to my child. A childminder is in an entirely different class and IMO this is perfectly acceptable to have free play. I would in fact much prefer to see my child outside playing than cooped up inside being interacted with. Nanny or childminder.

My DS ia 19 mths. When tired he gets unsteady on his feet. That's when accidents happen, especially in any heat, which he's not used to. When we're outside I personally watch him like a hawk. That day was more like 25 degrees.

Im thinking I made a bit too much of this. :-)

I think if you want a higher level of service than a childminder, perhaps hire a nanny? I would expect a Nanny to be attentive to my child. A childminder is in an entirely different class and IMO this is perfectly acceptable to have free play. I would in fact much prefer to see my child outside playing than cooped up inside being interacted with. Nanny or childminder.

Even with a nanny I would expect periods of free play with the nanny sitting and watching while my child did her own thing. I wouldn't expect anyone to focus intently on a child all day every day. Wouldn't that be stressful for the child?

I was a sahm and pretty attentive to my kids, but even I gave them plenty of free play time while I just sat and watched. I can watch a child, sit in the sun, and browse Facebook all at the same time without losing track of my kids.

Actually, I would be a little mad. Even during free play, the child should be supervised, especially in heat. The job she is payed for is to watch the child, not sunbath. That can be done on her own time. If you choose to bring this up, I would tell her you saw her posting and would prefer her to be supervising and interacting with the child, not sunbathing.

Uh? How do you know she wasn't supervising? She said she was doing it while the kids were there? Does she have to sit in the shade covered up while she's watching the kids?

And in fact, her being out in the sun means that she can tell how hot it's getting.

My DS ia 19 mths. When tired he gets unsteady on his feet. That's when accidents happen, especially in any heat, which he's not used to. When we're outside I personally watch him like a hawk. That day was more like 25 degrees.

If I read that, I would be happy that the kids were outdoors playing. I mean right now I am reading etiquette hell while minding my baby. OK, my baby is asleep, but I also work on my computer and read books while the baby (and my four year old) are awake.

Children playing outside on a warm day sounds perfect to me. I also prefer relaxed caregivers over hovering ones and I really like people who can find small joys in their job.

If it doesn't work for you, you can move your child. That is also entirely your right as it is your kid. I think that would be really silly, but my opinion doesn't really matter (nor should it)

I wouldn't say anything. Generally, I expect home centres to be more like children being home with parents than preschool which is what some people prefer and was great for DD when she was very young as I started back to work early. When we had a home provider I just expected her to merge DD into her life and figured she would still do some things like her laundry and cleaning during the day as she would never get a real break away from the kids. She would even load the kids in strollers and go to the store for a few things and I was totally fine with that. Once when DD and her DD were the only two there she took DD on the bus to her DD's eye appointment and I was fine with that (she did ask first though but I was surprised she asked). Now DD is a big centre and even then the providers don't play with the kids 100% of the time but they also get real lunch breaks, holidays, sick days, etc. away from the kids that a home provider doesn't. For that reason, I would cut the provider some slack and as long as she was watching the kids run around she could take a few minutes and sit on a chair and watch.

Actually, I would be a little mad. Even during free play, the child should be supervised, especially in heat. The job she is payed for is to watch the child, not sunbath. That can be done on her own time. If you choose to bring this up, I would tell her you saw her posting and would prefer her to be supervising and interacting with the child, not sunbathing.

My hunch is that she was supervising the children, and they don't need to be interacting with adults every minute--they can interact with each other, or just run across the lawn or stop to inspect a dandelion.

Also, it may have been "warm enough to sunbathe" by some British standards, but that was at 20 C. That's 68 Fahrenheit, which is on the low end of "room temperature." (I don't think even most British people would normally call it warm, but Britain has had a chilly spring this year.)